Vixen 03 (Dirk Pitt 5)

In the rest room Steiger ran cold water over his face. The eyes that stared back in the mirror were red and tired, but they also radiated hope. He had successfully tracked down two of the Quick Death warheads. He could only pray that Pitt was as fortunate.

Steiger picked up the phone in Lovell's office and asked the operator to put through a collect long-distance call.

Pitt was asleep on a couch in his NUMA office when his secretary, Zerri Pochinsky, leaned over and gently shook him awake.

Her long fawn-colored hair hung down, framing a face that was warm and pretty and full of merry admiration.

"You've got a visitor and two calls," she said in a soft Southern drawl.

Pitt pushed aside the cobwebs and sat up. "The calls?" he said.

"Congresswoman Smith," Zerri answered with a trace of acidity, "and Colonel Steiger on long distance."

"And the visitor?"

"Says his name is Sam Jackson. He doesn't have an appointment but he insists that it's important."

Pitt began to pull his sleep-fogged mind to even keel. "I'll take Steiger's call first. Tell Loren I'll call her back, and send in Jackson as soon as I'm off the phone."

Zerri nodded. "The colonel is on line three."

He walked unsteadily to the desk and punched one of the blinking buttons. "Abe?"

"Greetings from sunny Oklahoma."

"How'd it go?"

"Paydirt," said Steiger. "Scratch two warheads."

"Nice work," Pitt said, smiling for the first time in days. "Any problems?"

"None. I'll stand by until a crew arrives to pick them up."

"I've got a NUMA Catlin loaded with a forklift sitting at Dulles. Where can they set down?"

"One second."

67

Pitt could hear muffled voices as Steiger conversed with someone at the other end of the line.

"Okay," Steiger said. "The post commander says there is a small private airfield about eight hundred yards long a mile south of town."

"Twice what a Catlin requires," Pitt said.

"Any luck at your end?"

"The curator at the British Imperial War Museum said the shell they purchased from Phalanx for a World War Two naval exhibit is definitely armor piercing."

"Leaving the African Army of Revolution holding the other two QD warheads."

"Thereby hangs a tale," Pitt said.

"What earthly purpose are heavy naval shells in the African jungle?"

"Our riddle for the day," said Pitt, rubbing his reddened eyes. "At least we're temporarily blessed with the fact that they're no longer in our backyard."

"Where do we go from here?" asked Steiger. "We can't very well tell a pack of terrorists they've got to give back the most horrendous weapon of all time."